Last week a well-known British tabloid published an interview with British race car driver, Pippa Mann, the first ever British woman to contest the Indianapolis 500. For reasons that will be obvious to anyone who follows the American IndyCar Series, it was a tasteless article which Mann was subsequently horrified and furious about.

In my last report I distinctly remember warning you all. There’s a new kid in town. He’s young. He’s full of ambition. And he means business. He walks confidently through the paddock, yet is barely noticed by the regulars.